Pneumatic action for player-pianos.



E. C. HISCCK.

PNEUMAT'IC ACTIGN FOR PLAYER PIANOS.

APPLICATION FILED 1uLY|5,1914.-

Patent-ed May 29, 1917.

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EMORY C. HISCOCK, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO JOI-IN FARWELL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PNEUMATIC ACTION FOR PLAYER-PIANOS.

To all wiz/Omit may concern:

Be it knownu that I, EMonY C. Hrsooon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pneumatic Actions for Player-Pianos, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the art of player pianos, and has reference more particularly to improvements in the pneumatic actions employed in such instruments. Among the main objects of the invention are, to provide means for mounting the tracker-range controlled units, each consisting of a power pneumatic and its controlling valve or valves on the wind chest so that not only may each unit be applied and removed independently of the others, but the unit supporting and securing means shall be capable of application and removal wholly from the exterior of the wind chest without requiring any dismantling of the latter; to provide a valve housing having one or more hollow tenons adapted to serve not only as the principal supporting means for the valve housing and power pneumatic on the wind chest, but also' as a part of the duct or ducts connecting the interior of the wind chest with the diaphragm chamber of the valve housing; to provide an improved construction of valve chamber and cap-piece affording easy relative adjustment of the lower and upper valve seats of the controlling valve; to provide an improved wind chest structure having one Wall thereof bored to afford horizontal wind chest ducts and vertical trackerrange ducts extending between each pair of horizontal ducts. Other objects and advantages attained by the invention will be apparent from the Jfollowing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein I have illustrated one practical embodiment oi the invention, and inwhich- Figure 1 is a vertical section through the wind chest and one of a tier of power pneumatics applied to the rear wall thereof, another osaid pneumatics being shown in said elevation.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section in a plane at right angles to that of Fig. 1 on the line 2 2 of the latter figure.

Fig. 3 is a view in horizontal section through the wind chest and showing one of the power pneumatics and its valve mecha- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application mea July 15, 1914. serial No. 851,027.

nism in top plan, with the Jfelt cover of the cap-piece of the controlling valve removed.

Fig. l is a sectional view on line 4 4: ot Fig. 1.

'Fig 5 is a sectional detail vthrough the diaphragm and valve chambers of the valve housing, with the valve removed.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary top plan view of the valve housing looking down' into the valve chamber.

Fig. 7 is a central vertical section of the controlling valve, with the stem thereof shown in elevation.

Fig. S is a bottom plan view lof the cappiece of the valve housing which carries the upper valve seat. l

Referring to the drawings, l designates the front wall and 2 the rear walls of the wind chest, the interior of which is connected to the main exhaust bellows of the instrument in the usual way. The rear wall 2 is somewhat thicker than the front wall and is Jformed at intervals with pairs of horizontal ducts 3 formed therethrough, said pairs being arranged in staggered or opposed relation between the upper and lower ends of the wind chest, as clearly shown in Fig. 2. Said rear wall 2 is also vertically bored to form a series of trackerrange ducts 4, each of which extends between a pairof horizontal ducts 3 and at its lower end communicates through a short horizontal extension la with the outer side of the rear wall 2. The upper ends of the ducts 4t communicate through nipples 5 and tube 6 with the ports of the usual trackerrange. The upper portion of the front wall l is preferably formed as a separable, removable element la to permit ready access to the bleed vents 7 that exhaust air through short horizontal ducts 8 connecting the tracker-range'ducts 4 with the upper portion'of the wind chest. In the upper portion of the wind chest is preferably located an apertured spacing bar 9 located just below the bleed vents 7 and 'forming a support for the meeting edges of the front wall sections l and la.

To the outer side or' the rear wall 2 of the wind chest are secured the several tracker-range control units, each of which controls an individual note of the instruT ment, each of said units comprising a power pneumatic l() and a cast metal valve housing designated as an entirety by 1l, to the lower side of which the upper section of each pneumatic is secured as by screws 12 with an interposed packing strip 1S of leather, paper or other suitable material. This valve housing is formed with the usual valve chamber 14 and diaphragm chamber 15 beneath and communicating with the valve chamber, said diaphragm chamber containing the usual motor diaphragm 1G. 17 designates the control valve as an entirety, the stem 18 of which rests upon the diaphragm 16, and the valve itself coperating with a lower valve seat 19 and an upper valve seat 20 formed on the under side of the body of an annular metal cappiece 21. rl`he valve housing is suitably cored to provide a duct 22 connecting the valve chamber with the power pneumatic through a port 23 of the latter, and with a duct 24 that affords communication between the lower end of the tracker-range duct 4, 4"L and the space beneath the motor diaphragm 16. The valve housing is further provided with an integral vert-ical flange 25 by which it is secured through screws 26 and an interposed packing to the rear wall of the wind chest; and said housing is further formed with a pair of hollow tenons 28, best shown in Fig. 4, that extend beyond the forward end of the housing and are snugly fitted into countersinks Q9 in the rear or outer ends of the horizontal wind chest ducts 3. The bores of the hollow tenons 28 are continued inwardly to communicate with the diaphragm chamber 15, as most clearly shown in Fig. 4, and said hollow tenons constitute the principal means for rigidly supporting the valve housings and their pneumatics upon the wall of the wind chest, the screws 26 serving mainly as attaching means. It is obvious that, in lieu of the pair of hollow tenons, a single tenon of larger cross sectional area might be employed, but I prefer the construction shown as not only reducing the size of the bore which forms the wind chest duct or passage, but also because a pair of tenons en opposite sides of thc longitudinal axis of the supported structure holds said structure against any turning tendency irrespective of the fastening screw 26.

Referring again to the valve chamber, this latter is provided at uniformly spaced intervals with a series (four as herein shown) of vertical posts 80, the main function of which is to engage the periphery of the valve disk 17 and accurately guide the limited movements of the latter between the lower Valve seat and the upper valve seat 20. On the circular wall of the valve chamber are also formed a series of cams 31, all sloping in the same circular direction, said cams being designed to coperate with depending lugs 32 (Fig. 8) formed on the lower edge of the annular body member of the cap-piece. Said cap-piece is snugly fitted to the open upper end of the valve housing and is preferably provided with a pair of oppositely disposed lugs 33 (Fig. 3), by which it may be readily turned so as to adjust, through the cams 31 and lugs 82, the distance between the lower and upper valve seats 19 and 20, thereby regulating the extent of play of the valve itself. Preferably, as herein shown, two of the valve guides 30 are located at opposite ends of two of the cams 31 (Fig. 6), whereby said guides also serve as stops to limit the turning movement of the cap-piece to the length of the cams 31. The upper edge of the an nular body of the cap-piece is preferably knurled o1 otherwise roughened as shown at 84 in Fig. 3, and has cemented thereto a porous disk 35 of felt or like material readily permeable to the air.

Referring now to the detailed structure of the valve 17, this is formed of a plurality of superposed thin, flexible disks held together by a peripheral container and having the valve stem 18 secured cent-rally to one side of said group of disks. In the preferred construction the disk assembly comprises a. central thin disk 36 of paper, a pair of felt disks 37 on either side thereof, and a pair of outer disks 88 of thin sheet rubber or like material, such as leather. The container consists of a thin sheet metal annulus 3f) surrounding the periphery of the disks and having its edges crimped or inturned, as shown at 39', to firmly and securely unite said edges at their peripheries. The valve stem 18 is formed with a widened base member 18 and with a reduced shank or tenen 18a, which latter is entered about half way into the series of disks and, with the base member 18, is securely cemented to the latter. This construction a'ords a very light, uniform and durable valve that is substantially free from variations of weight and form under climatic changes and is extremely sensitive to the action of the air. The structure of the disk valve last described is not herein claimed, but forms the subject matter of a divisional application filed on the 15th day of May, 1915, Serial No. 28,274.

The general principle of operation of the mechanism shown and described does not differ from that of the standard pneumatic action; but I have found by thorough test that the several specific improvements above described and pointed out in the appended claims afford a pneumatic player action that is capable of liner adjustment and more sensitive a nd perfect responsiveness to the action of the air than any other pneumatic player action with which I am acquainted. The described construction also not only enables each unit to. be independently applied and removed Without disturbing the others, but

it also enables the attaching and securing means to be located Wholly on, and accessible from, the outer side of the rear wall of the wind chest, thus making it unnecessary to disassemble or dismantle the latter when getting at the units for purposes of adjustment or repair.

I claim:

1. In a pneumatic player action, the combination with a wind chest, of a power pneumatic, and a valve housing for said power pneumatic having a supporting tenen fitted into a vertical wall of said wind chest and also having a vertical flange abutting against said vertical wall, and one or more attaching screws passed through said fiange and into said vertical wall.

2. In a pneumatic player action, the combination with a wind chest, of a power pneumatic, and a valve housing for said power pneumatic formed with a pair of supporting tenons on opposite sides respectivelyT of the longitudinal median line thereof and fitted into a wall of said wind chest.

3. In a pneumatic player action, the combination with a wind chest, of a power pneumatic, and a valve housing for said power pneumatic formed on one end thereof with a pair of hollow tenons fitted into a wall of said wind chest, said hollow tenons affording a communication between the interior of said wind chest and the diaphragm chamber of said valve housing.

a. In a pneumatic player action, the combination with a wind chest, of a power pneumatic, and a controlling valve housing to which said power pneumatic is secured, said housing being formed as an integral metal casting and provided with a pair of integral hollow tenons on opposite sides respectively of the longitudinal median line thereof fitted into a vertical wall of said wind chest and forming the principal support of said casting on said wind chest and said hollow tenons affording a communication between the interior of said wind chest and the diaphragm chamber of said valve housing.

In a pneumatic player action, the combination with a wind chest provided with a pair of counter-sunk holes extending through a vertical wall thereof, of a controlling valve housing formed with a pair of integral hollow tenons fitted into the countersunk ends ot said holes, said holes and the bores of said tenons forming parts of a pair of ducts of uniform diameter leading from the wind chest chamber to the diaphragm chamber of said valve housing. and a power pneumatic secured to and wholly supported by said valve housing.

6. In a controlling valve mechanism for a power pneumatic of a player action, the combination of a housing structure having a diaphragm chamber and a valve chamber formed with a lower valve seat and with a series of cams around its side wall, a diaphragm in said diaphragm chamber, a valve in said valve chamber having a stem resting on said diaphragm, and a cap-piece fitted to the upper end of said valve chamber and formed with an upper valve seat, said cap-piece further having a series of depending lugs riding on said cams whereby to adjust the height of said upper valve seat relatively to said lower valve seat.

7. In a controlling valve mechanism for a power pneumatic of a player action, the combination of a housing structure having a diaphragm chamber and a valve chamberformed with a lower valve seat, a diaphragm in said diaphragm chamber, a valve in said valve chamber having its stem resting on said diaphragm, and a cap-piece comprising a metal annular member fitted to the upper end of said valve chamber and formed with an upper valve seat on its under side and a porous disk, secured to and covering the upper side of said annular member.

8. In a controlling valve mechanism for a power pneumatic of' a player action, the combination of a housing structure having a diaphragm chamber and a valve chamber formed with a lower valve seat, a diaphragm in said diaphragm chamber, a valve in said valve chamber having its stem resting on said diaphragm, and a cap-piece comprising a metal annular member fitted to the upper end of said valve chamber and formed with an upper valve seat on its under side and with a roughened upper side, and a porous disk, cemented to and covering the roughened upper side of said annular member.

9. In a controlling valve mechanism for a power pneumatic of a player action, the combination of a housing structure having a diaphragm chamber and a valve chamber formed with a lower valve seat, a series of cams around its side wall, and a series of spaced valve guides around said valve seat, a diaphragm in said dial'ihragm chamber, a disk valve in said valve chamber having its stem resting on said diaphragm and its periphery in sliding engagement with said guides, and a cap-piece fitted to the upper end of said valve chamber and formed with an upper valve seat and with a series of depending lugs riding on said cams, said valve guides being so positioned as to serve as stops to limit the turning movement of said cap-piece through engagement with said lugs.

EMORY C. HISCOCK. lVitnesses IRA J. WILSON, A. G. LATIMER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, 2D. C. 

